Rippen Actions

[Barrie Heaton]

In your message dated Wednesday 27, September 1995 you wrote :
> Greetings from the Granite state!
>
>
> Does anyone know where to find service information or parts for these
> actions?  If not, does anyone have experience repairing these plastic parts,
> or making up suitable replacements?  Theoretically I could just remove the
> whole keyboard and replace it  with a conventional wood keyframe and
> keyboard, but the time and expense would easily exceed the value of the
> piano.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> Ed Bordeleau
> Pianoarts, Inc.
> Hooksett, NH
>
Hi Ed

In the J.K. we tend to scrap these type of pianos.  If you are serious about
restoring the above piano the guy who has or did have Rippen parts is Graham
Richards on +44 1816464347 he also used to have conversion kits for replacing
plastic keys with wooden ones.

Other faults besides the key sprintgs are that the hammer butts and bottom
sections are snap on and not screw on and there were made of graphite
impregnated nylon which after ten or more yea4rs tends to go brittle.  So
removing acdtion paarts can be tricky.

They had some interestilng innivations such as screw addjustable key dip from
under the key bed screw addhustable key levelling from under the key bed and
losty motion from uneer the key bed the tuning pins have an anti-clockwise
thread this can be confusing when replacing a string.  The reason for the
anticlock was to make factory restringing quicker as they would coil the wire
round the pin and knock the pin in so that the coils of the wire were touching
the frame so the frame would close all the gaps in the coils and when you pulled
up to pitch a gap would apear between the frame and the coils.

I think but I \am not sure but they e4xperimented with fiber glass soundboartds
yuk.

Hope this helps you to through it in the bin or as in England we tell our
customers to wait till the fifth of November and make use of the piano for guy
fawks.
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                   Barrie Heaton
           Email piano@forte.demon.co.uk
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